Atlanta law barring landlords from refusing rent vouchers isn’t legally enforceable, lawyers say – Atlanta Civic Circle

The town of Atlanta can’t require landlords to simply accept publicly backed hire vouchers, as a result of a 2020 ordinance searching for to mandate simply that conflicts with state legislation, an legal professional with experience in native authorities instructed Atlanta Civic Circle on Friday.

The Atlanta legislation requiring landlords to simply accept vouchers and different hire subsidies as sources of earnings got here into the fore final week, when Metropolis Councilmember Amir Farokhi warned a luxurious house proprietor that it might’t refuse tenants’ government-subsidized hire funds.

However EDGE on the Beltline’s proprietor, actual property firm Carter Haston, instructed Atlanta Civic Circle it isn’t declining renters’ Part 8 vouchers. Fairly, a Carter Haston consultant stated, the U.S. Division of Housing and City Growth (HUD) stopped paying the invoice for tenants on the Outdated Fourth Ward advanced after the agency purchased the advanced from developer North American Properties in January. HUD didn’t reply to repeated requests for remark this week.

Farokhi’s letter, which cites the anti-discrimination ordinance, raises the query of whether or not the “supply of earnings” clause is enforceable, because it conflicts with a state legislation that bars native municipalities from implementing truthful housing legal guidelines which are broader than the state’s, based on one native lawyer targeted on authorities accountability, Matthew Cardinale.

As of Friday, the town was unable to say whether or not its Human Relations Fee, which determines code violations, has ever obtained a grievance over landlords refusing to take hire vouchers. Rayna Plummer, Mayor Andre Dickens’ deputy press secretary, stated the fee is trying into it.

Cardinale, the editor of Atlanta Progressive Information and a longtime thorn within the facet of metropolis officers, stated in a textual content that “Atlanta lessors usually are not required to simply accept vouchers,” citing Georgia code that prohibits native governments from increasing the state’s truthful housing legislation, which doesn’t bar discrimination in opposition to renters based mostly on sources of earnings.

The 2020 ordinance is “unlawful” and “the town is aware of this,” stated Cardinale. “I assist this coverage—simply not till it’s of authorized impact.”

Prohibiting landlords from refusing to hire to individuals based mostly on their supply of earnings is sweet coverage, and state lawmakers ought to change the legislation so the town can implement the 2020 ordinance, stated Michael Lucas, the manager director of Atlanta Volunteer Legal professionals Basis, which handles evictions and housing instances for low-income Atlantans.

“This type of tenant safety is a crucial a part of addressing the issue we’ve right here in Atlanta,” Lucas stated of the housing affordability disaster. “If state intervention is required to ensure that it to be totally enforced, then that must be a part of it.”

As the town laws addressing truthful housing, authored by Farokhi and former metropolis council member Antonio Brown, approached a vote in early 2020, the town’s authorized division prompt including an modification to delay implementing “supply of earnings” as a class shielded from landlord discrimination till the state legislature modifications the state legislation to permit it, based on WABE.

However the council determined in opposition to the modification and handed the laws by a 13-2 vote.

Metropolis Councilmember Howard Shook, one of many two naysayers, stated he voted in opposition to the ordinance as a result of he didn’t need to vote for a legislation that violated state legislation.